Dominican Republic Team Out of the Can-Am League

Earlier this week, the Can-Am League issued a press release stating that the Dominican Republic team would not be playing their remaining games on the schedule. The Hollywood Stars, owned by the Pecos League, will play out the rest of the games.

This isn’t a huge loss for the league as the Dominican Republic team failed to win any of their nine games that they had played. Last year, the team went 2-15.

Below is the Can-Am’s official press release:

HOLLYWOOD STARS TO REPLACE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC TEAM

Durham, N.C. — Due to transportation issues, the Dominican Republic team, which finished its games against the Can-Am League’s American clubs Sunday, has been replaced on the schedule by the Hollywood Stars. The Stars competed in the independent Pecos League in 2017.

The Dominican Republic team had been scheduled to play at Ottawa June 19-21, at Trois-Rivières June 22-24, and at Québec June 26-28. All dates and times will remain the same for games against Hollywood.

After the news was made official, a representative of the Dominican Republic team emailed me to tell me that the transportation issue was really just a way for the league to make an excuse not to have them play the remainder of their schedule. They stated that the bus was cancelled by the league, without warning, leaving the Dominicans stranded in New Jersey after having to check out of their hotel.

I reached out to the Can-Am commissioner, Miles Wolff, for his response on Tuesday (6/19), and he told me that:

The Dominican team was scheduled to leave NJ yesterday at 11 a.m. on a bus that the league had hired. No players were there to meet the bus. Canadian visas had not been acquired. Although the DR organizers stated that the team would be ready today, the uncertainty over whether we would have a team to make the trip to Canada caused the league to cancel the Canadian portion of the series.

After Wolff’s email response to me, he went on record with the Ottawa Sun to discuss the issue further, stating:

“I cancelled it,” Champions owner Miles Wolff said. “The decision was mine, not theirs. Their bus was supposed to leave New Jersey at 11 (Monday morning). The team wasn’t ready to leave. They said, ‘Oh, we’re going to leave at 3 the next morning.’ Canadian visas hadn’t been applied for. There was huge uncertainty.

“The team wasn’t very good. They hadn’t gotten their U.S. visas, so they were using a lot of players out of New York City. Last year, they were only 2-16 in the league and they said, ‘OK, we understand the league is strong. We’re going to have a good team for you this year. We want to really do it right.’ It turned out to be worse than last year. The last straw was them cancelling the bus that was supposed to leave. We needed to make sure a team was going to be here.”

The Dominican team representative assured me that they had players in place to play and did everything the league asked of them. The representative also told me that the bus situation and time of departure was supposed to be set by them, and not the league. Wolff has been on the record multiple times stating that the Dominican team cancelled the bus, which caused him to cancel the series; however, I have seen an email where he has admitted to cancelling the bus himself because the representative was trying to “force things.”

The Hollywood Stars team, which was the Canadian version of the Salina team that just finished their partial schedule, was already in place and ready to take over and play. It does appear that having two different Salina teams (one in Canada and one in the States) shows that this may have been in the works for weeks without the Dominican team’s knowledge.

Since first publishing this article, I’ve been informed by a member of the Salina team that many members were supposed to play in both Canada and the United States. Others were scheduled to return to their original team. Some members of the Canadian Salina team were on their way back to their Pecos League team or on their way to join the Salina team in New Jersey, but were then told they needed to stay. A lot of players had to figure out a way to cancel plans or make other arrangements to stay or return to Canada to form the Hollywood Stars team.

So even if the Can-Am had this planned for weeks, they did not let the Pecos League know about it either.

Understandably, the Dominican Republic team is angry and upset about how the league has handled this entire situation.

Regardless of what exactly happened, the Can-Am bringing in poorly performing teams from outside the league has given them a bad look in recent years.

So far this season, the Salina Stockade (a Pecos League team) is 3-7, the new Hollywood Stars team (basically the Canadian roster of the Stockade) lost their first game and the Dominican team went 0-9. Last year, there were two foreign teams playing a partial schedule: the Cuban National Team which went 5-16, and that same Dominican team which went 2-15.

The Can-Am has been doing this for years – relying on travel teams or other teams outside of the league to fill their schedule – but these teams are rarely competitive which makes for some long games for both players and fans.

In a way, it almost seems like a publicity stunt that does the exact opposite of what one is supposed to do. These teams rarely bring in droves and droves of fans (the Dominican team was an exception), but it also appears that it has alienated a lot of fans from the six “core” teams in the league who see it as a joke and are frustrated with seeing such poor play.

Did the Can-Am really believe that the Dominican Republic team couldn’t continue on to the Canadian leg of the schedule? What really happened with the bus situation? Did the poor performance of the team lead to the switch?

Remember, there are always three sides to the story. I gave you the Can-Am League’s and the Dominican Republic team’s… I’ll leave it up to the reader to figure out the third side.

4 thoughts on “Dominican Republic Team Out of the Can-Am League”

– Of course the league doubted the Dominicans could cross the border. The team was announced in February – meaning they’d had almost 6 months to get visas. 36 hours before they’re supposed to play in Canada, they’re still messing around and don’t have visas? Clearly, they didn’t “do everything the league asked of them” – which included getting visas. Yeah, I’d figure out a plan B as well.

– The Pecos League had planned to send two squads all along, one to play the American clubs and one to play the Canadian clubs: https://bit.ly/2K8Zcbp

So basically, rather than each of the Canadian clubs potentially losing 3 home dates because they didn’t have an opponent, the league just asked the first Pecos League squad to stick around another week.

Also, what proof do you have that it “appears that [playing foreign teams] has alienated a lot of fans from the six “core” teams in the league”? If it wasn’t profitable for the teams, they wouldn’t do it. Attendance has risen over the years when the foreign clubs come through (check the box scores) – so you’re wrong on that as well.

1. I’m not inventing conspiracies. I’m simply posting both sides to a story. The Dominican team came to me telling me that the “transportation” issues were not true and told me that they did have the visas. The Can-Am cancelled their bus, but put the blame on them. They wanted their side out there.
2. Exactly. The Pecos League always had 2 different teams… the Dominican team thinks this was because they planned to cancel their Canadian trip all along.
3. Many members of the independent baseball chat group are Can-Am fans and they stated that they are tired of seeing non-competitive games. I also didn’t state attendance for just the foreign teams. They’ve been bringing in other non-competitive teams like the Pecos or travel teams that do nothing for attendance.

Well I would imagine that inventing a Conspiracy Theory would mean there was no truth to the matter. My name is TRACEY CUESTA and I am the GM for the Team and was their GM LAST YEAR as well. We had a Travel Roster of 48 Dominican Players. 36 of them had already seen action in the games that you can verify by the league’s PointStreak Stats. The CanAm League’s OFFICIAL Daily Roster is only 22 but their regulations allow DAILY adds/drops whatever a team feels comfortable with so for example if these 4 pitchers throw today and don’t do the job 4 more are brought in tomorrow, same with all the positions and the reason our rosters were never the same 2 days in a row but we DEFINITELY HAD PEOPLE TO TRAVEL. They had obtained their Visas through OUR CHANNELS and in the DR and NOT through Miles and his narscisstic “Im the only one who knows and you are a peasant” form if thinking and the way he “instructed me I had to do it” and ESPECIALLY me being a WOMAN REALLY stewed his goat. So they had to have SOME kind of Visas to even BE THERE on the FIELD YA THINK? Or US Passports or US Residency??? Our Roster was so deep because we were using this as an opportunity to get our guys seen and hopefully signed by teams but it created a horrible dynamic as it caused players running all over themselves. Trying be heros and not win as a TEAM… Our Canadian Travel Roster for Monday for the Ottawa Series had been set with 26 Players travelling to Ottawa and 7 that we had applied for their Visas on Monday am to join the team on Friday in Trois Rivieres with Vladirimir Guerrero to retire his jersey #27 on Saturday as part of our team – that Miles was WELL aware of. 5 already in NJ on US Visas and 2 who had returned from a series in Colombia and were in the DR waiting to fly direct to Montreal in Thursday evening the 21. Miles Wolff and Dan Moushoun had been advised of this as well as EVERY one of our movements EVERY step of the way SINCE FEB. Even as late as Sunday when they sent Shawn Reily to the Clubhouse to ask our Manager “how many players were we still missing to make the Canadian trip” and I spoke with him personally and said “Once again PLEASE tell them for the THOUSANDTH TIME we are SET. MAYBE they will LISTEN to you since you are a MAN. They are completely disrespecting my authority and my word to continue questioning me and or my staff everyday about everything and everyday even though we are playing like AMATEURS we ARE ON THE FIELD as agreed to and promised. And ATTENDANCE IS DOUBLED” The League had even called Sussex on the first night and “alleged” they needed to work out a Plan B because “The Dominican Team had Not yet arrived” it was a complete sham. We were told they couldn’t BELIEVE it when we arrived with 30 players as “the LEAGUE” had said there were no more than 7 in the hotel… but I dodged EVERY bullet THEY SHOT and every stone THEY have thrown and we are STILL alive waiting/hoping/praying that he will come to his senses and LET US CONTINUE OUR SCHEDULE.

Miles Wolff is looking for someone from the Pecos League to cover Rockland when they go to the Atlantic League next year. He is desperate to keep the league alive and desperate men take desperate measures. He NEVER wanted the DR Team in Canada as he REFUSED the participation of Ottawa in the Vladimir Guerrero visit citing “HE would never come” as they had been trying for THREE Years and when his visit was CONFIRMED he seemes to have lost his mind and we were collateral damage. He cancelled our bus and left our team stranded in their hotel WITH NOTHING. There is NO CONSPIRACY theory here. These are the COLD HARD FACTS. If Miles Wolff and his doomsday negative over the top energy doesn’t separate from the CanAm League it’s going to FOLD. Having our DR Team although we played HORRIBLY was STILL providing DOUBLE in the attendance numbers for the parks than their averages. EVEN WITH US LOSING. And with the PECOS teams Attendance numbers are BELOW even AVERAGE…And another note… IF in fact Miles was “expecting” us to board a bus a 11am in Mahweh NJ, can ANYONE explain WHY at 12pm NOON Pecos Players were checking into our hotel in OTTAWA with the last one arriving at “5 or 6” according to the Hotel? We wouldn’t even have ARRIVED until 8-9 after Border crossing and stops but they were ALREADY THERE!!!! Miles Wolff CONFIRMED the arrival at the hotel of the PECOS TEAM at 12pm and CANCELLED the series “formally” with me at 12:17. So I have NO IDEA who ever told him “we disn’t have visas” all I know is that his choice of informants in definitely NOT the best and their information was BOGUS!!! Yet he had ALREADY told the bus to NOT GO TO CANADA and I have an email from the Bus Company THAT CONFIRMS THIS.

Miles Wolff needs to pack his bags and GET OUT of the CanAm League and he needs to do it IMMEDIATELY. Miles is a “NAYSAYER” and a NAYSAYER is going to cause the demise of this League that DESERVES more from the person who is SUPPOSEDLY LEADING them they deserve a TRUE Leader one who says WE CAN DO this and we can do it TOGETHER. You should ALWAYS hope for the best and PLAN for the worst. MILES WOLFF PLANS FOR THE WORST and destroys the best.

We want to play Baseball. We were asked to come play Baseball with the CanAm League until June 28. We were promised food, housing and transportation and BASEBALL until the 28th. We should NEVER be stranded in a hotel because a Napoleonic Naysayer simply gets something psychotic in his head and says “Adios”…